This happened to me (to a lesser extent) in “Dark and Deep,” though I chalk it up to me at first not understanding what the “gameplay loop” of that story would be. And the story/environment of that story were more immersive, so it would’ve taken more to actually pull me from the experience.

But this one is already so immediate that I very quickly reached repetitive responses that chased their own tails, and trying every word from them never cracked open the next moment. So I got the impression that there was a single word or concept I probably saw but unwittingly chose something different to enter, and now to make progress I’d have to revisit all my previous entries and whittle down the words from each.

So the concept is wonderful, and a great idea for a Petite Mort, but I think it could benefit from some more time and a bit of expansion of its possibilities and prompts to help maintain the conversational aspect.

I acknowledge that this isn’t an easy task, so also kudos to you for taking it on. And I’ll add that the conversational aspect of “Dark and Deep” is much more successful, possibly because it feels like the conversation with the old woman has more subjects to explore.

The slippery nature of the conversation in “An Admirer” makes it hard to feel it’s building toward something (your possible murder or takeover by the presence?) and so despite the presence’s expressed desperation, quitting feels like an easy out for me as the subject of its affection.